Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from Westside Story
Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast
Joshua Weilerstein
4.9 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2024
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The original production of Westside Story ran for 732 performances, spawned a movie that won 11 Academy Awards, and is still a go to on every list of the greatest Broadway Musicals ever written. The collaboration between Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerome Robbins was a revolution on par with the collaborations of Stravinsky, Diaghilev, and Nijinsky on the Rite of Spring. No Broadway show had ever been so gritty, so tragic, and so raw. The first performances of Westside Story were done against the backdrop of a rise in gang violence in New York City. The socio-economic aspects of the show were evident to everyone who watched it, and I always like to remind people that the location where Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, who adapted Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for this show, and Sondheim imagined the story taking place is where Lincoln Center now sits, a seat of opulence and extravagance. Simply put, this was a musical, a comedy, a tragedy, a political statement, and most importantly, a stunningly revolutionary work of art by these collaborators. Today, I want to tell you about the music, and more specifically, the Symphonic Dances from Westside Story, an arrangement that Bernstein made with his colleague Sid Ramin 3 years after the show's premiere. The Symphonic Dances brought Bernstein's electric music from the theatre to the concert stage, and it's stayed there ever since. So today, we'll go through each number, talking about just what makes this music so great, and also about the show itself - its background, its production, and the issues that Bernstein, Laurents, Sondheim, and Robbins were trying to tackle, all through the eyes of a tale of woe about Juliet and her Romeo, or of course, Maria and Tony. Join us!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Sticky Notes, the Classical Music Podcast. |
| 0:14.2 | My name is Joshua Wylestein. I'm a conductor, and I'm the music director of the |
| 0:17.7 | Orchestra Nacional de Lille, and the chief conductor of the Alborg Symphony. |
| 0:21.9 | This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the field, |
| 0:25.9 | where it's just getting ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music. |
| 0:30.3 | Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Kurt and Jamie, |
| 0:34.8 | and all of my other Patreon sponsors for making Season 10 possible. |
| 0:39.1 | If you'd like to support the show, please head over to patreon.com slash Sticky Notes Podcast. |
| 0:44.1 | And if you are a fan of the show, please take a moment to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:49.1 | Every rating or review helps more people find the show, and it is greatly appreciated. |
| 0:55.0 | So I will be heading to Cologne next week for my debut with the Gertznih Orchestra. |
| 1:00.9 | We're doing a really nice program with the Vorgiach's 7th Symphony, Pabalas' Study for Strings, |
| 1:07.1 | and Bartok's second violin concerto with the legendary Midori. |
| 1:11.0 | I've worked with Midori before on the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Naples Philharmonic |
| 1:14.8 | in Florida, and it's just always an incredibly special experience to work with an artist like her. |
| 1:20.9 | In terms of the podcast, we are going to have a couple more of these American-themed episodes |
| 1:26.4 | in the run-up to the American election. |
| 1:28.5 | But then after the election, we're going back to the bi-weekly schedule, and I've got a ton |
| 1:33.4 | of Patreon-sponsored episodes to make for you that are really exciting, including Shostakov's |
| 1:39.3 | 8th Symphony, Dvorzac's violin concerto, the influence of literary works on classical compositions, |
| 1:45.0 | a little bit on John Williams and Star Wars, the Berg violin concerto, |
| 1:49.0 | Smetnaz Mahlast, the Copeland Chlorinet Concerto, Steve Reich's different trains, the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, |
... |
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